TOURS / RATES / TERMS AND CONDITIONS / RULES AND REGULATIONS
Those who book a service through APONO TRAVEL are bound to be with the following as this constitutes full acceptance of these general terms and conditions by both our company and our esteemed clients/guests.
We have two different rates as “regular” and “private”. The main difference between these two is that there might be some other participants as well on a regular tour whereas private tours are made without any others rather than the clients who have booked it. Though private tours are relatively more expensive they are more convenient for the people who are keen on their privacy. On our overnight tours, no breakfast on the first day and no dinner on the last day are served unless otherwise noted.
All the rates that are valid exclusively for those except Turkish citizens are given in Euro currency and valid between 01.01.2021 – 31.12.2021 Euro buying rate of the Central Bank of Turkey on the tour commencement day is taken into consideration on our invoices. All the tour rates include guidance in English, air-conditioned transportation, admission fees and taxes (Private tours can be carried out on the required language regarding availability).
At regular tours, the latest pick up time on the tour commencement day is 09h30 and the earliest drop-off time is 18h00. Smoking, eating and consuming alcoholic beverages is strictly prohibited in the tour vehicles and APONO TRAVEL keeps the right to cast away such behaving participants to keep the harmony of the departing tour.
We give the utmost care to provide our colleagues with the most updated and current hotel rates list. However, on some certain periods like New Year’s Eve, Religious and National Festivals, Conventions, International Competitions, Special Anniversaries, etc. almost all the hotels apply a surcharge. Therefore, APONO TRAVEL keeps the right to revise the quoted hotel rates list at the time of booking. However, once the bookings are confirmed with their specific rates, no further charges are applied.
While all care has been taken to ensure that all the quoted prices are correct, circumstances beyond the control of APONO TRAVEL may necessitate a change in the prices quoted. APONO TRAVEL reserves the right to adjust the price of any travel arrangements at any time due to the increases in the cost of airfares, tours, exchange rate fluctuations, fuel surcharges, value-added tax, etc. However, the quoted prices are guaranteed upon the receipt of full payment. Any further taxes to be imposed by the government further to the release of this website may also cause the rates to change. When the updated website is released the previous versions expire.
All the specific quotes/proposals submitted by our company are valid for 20 days after the release date. Such proposals will be considered void unless converted into a reservation within this 20 day period.
Though our guides show the utmost care to follow the itineraries in the same sequence there might be alterations in the sequence of the visits to the scheduled sites and no refund can be demanded that reason unless any sites or museums are missed. Timings given for the daily tours are approximate ones and they are all subject to change. Pick-up times may vary depending on the number of the participants and hotel locations.
Our rates do not include passport and visa charges, travel and medical health insurance (This is recommended to be obtained in the origin country), excess baggage, all items not specifically mentioned as being included, and all items of personal nature such as laundry, telephone, and other communication costs, all the beverages also including bottled water, tea and coffee, meals not detailed in the itinerary, and gratuities. Tips to the guides and drivers are customary and are left to the discretion of the guests.
Guaranteed departures are valid in case the guests join the tour on the very first day of the tour. Demands for joining these tours at a different stage and location are needed to be confirmed by us as a private rate will be applied if there become no other participants on these tours. Additionally, further to our confirmation, if the already available participants cancel the tour and consequently no more people join the regular tour then APONO TRAVEL keeps the right to cancel the arrangements for the clients who will join the tour at a different stage rather than the original commencement date or to charge on a private basis. All our regular tours are carried out with a minimum of 1 participant. APONO TRAVEL also keeps the right to cooperate with some other travel companies that have a similar tour, if a necessity arises.
Every participant on our tours is allowed a maximum of 2 bags weighing no more than 30 kg (66 pounds). Extra luggage can be accepted only when there is enough space on our vehicles. However, if there is no sufficient space for the third bag APONO TRAVEL keeps the right to refuse the extra luggage.
If the services are not canceled prior to 48 hours ago prior to the commencement date full invoice amount will be charged as NO SHOW.
All the payments should be received in full 45 days for individuals and groups of 10 or more prior to the service commencement date through one of the options stated below. No services are rendered unless full payment is received prior to the service commencement date and no responsibility is assumed against the travelers. The payments can be made through the following methods :
1- a Wire transfer to one of our account numbers the details of which can be obtained on request. All bank charges and fees need to be debited to the sender.
2- By a credit card through VISA, MasterCard or AMEX. You may be billed in Turkish Lira at the current exchange rate and therefore the Eurıo amount you authorize might be slightly different than quoted by you on your credit card statement report due to fluctuations on the currency rates and the conversion commissions that may be charged by your bank whereas also the amount can be billed directly in Euro currency. Euro effective selling rate of the Central Bank on the tour commencement day is taken into consideration on our invoices. The pre-payments made in Turkish Lira should also reflect the Euro effective selling rate of the Central Bank on the payment date.
Regarding the changes; the first change in the requested services is free. However, for each additional change made to the original booking, a service fee of €50 per service will be charged. The related change fees incurred by the hotels and airlines will also be additionally charged.
Last-minute changes just prior to the service commencement date or at the time of implementation stage cause a lot of problems and extra expenses for us. However, we always do our best to assist our esteemed clients to comply with their last-minute requests. Any extra costs for such requests should be settled right away while any refunds can only be worked out at the conclusion of the services – 15 days later after the completion of the overall services.
We are asked from time to time whether there is any availability on a certain date at a certain hotel. Unless we make a reservation with regards to this request availability can never be guaranteed. When we ask the hotels about availability and they say the rooms are available this is valid only for that very moment. The rooms can be imminent to any others right away. Therefore, we strongly recommend asking for a reservation to guarantee the room as otherwise, the availability at that moment does not guarantee the room even for the requests to be made in the following few hours.
The hotels cannot confirm the early check-in or late check-out until the very last moment as this opportunity is possible only in cases when the hotels are not fully booked on the night prior to check-in date or the night after the check-out date. Therefore it is not possible for us to confirm this well in advance and should be checked through the hotel at the time of arrival. However, most of the hotels will be helpful on this issue as long as they are convenient while a few of them like the Ciragan Hotel, Four Seasons Hotel, and some other deluxe hotels will require some extra payment. For your information, the general check-in and checkout times at the hotels are 14.00 and 11.00/12.00 respectively.
We do not take responsibility for the air tickets that are not issued by APONO TRAVEL and any reconfirmations or follow-ups should directly be handled by the guests themselves. We can also not be held responsible for the flight changes/cancellations incurred by the airlines.
We always consider the original departure schedule that is advised to us by our contacts. If the final departure details are different than what is given to us and we are not informed in this regard in a timely manner we do not take responsibility for any inconvenience that may emerge on the airport transfer services.
Due to the delays emerging from lost luggage problems at the planes or passport problems at the customs APONO TRAVEL cannot be held responsible and the guests can be waited up to a maximum of 30 minutes on the regular tours if some other participants are already waiting in the tour vehicle. However, if there are no other participants waiting or it is a private tour then our team will do their best to assist the problem to be settled.
Those who have lost luggage problems sometimes do not get through the customs and inform our staff promptly about the case by just waiting inside for quite a while. This could make our staff think that our guests were not on the plane as all the other passengers of the same plane were already out. Therefore we kindly ask our guests to go out of the customs and inform our staff that they are still awaiting inside before inquiring the issue as otherwise our staff can leave the terminal after having waited 30 minutes further to the leave of the last passenger of the same plane and no refund is given on such a case.
While our team is already waiting at the airport, some guests may have difficulties in spotting them on arrival to the airports due to the extreme crowd despite their names are written on the boards that are held by our staff and also due to the early landings of the planes. If the guests take a taxi to their hotel without extensively looking for our staff and calling our office promptly no refund will be given in case our staff is still at the airport. Similarly, all the guests who arrive at the airport earlier than the scheduled time are supposed to contact our office as our staff arrives at the airport 15 minutes ago prior to the scheduled landing time of the planes. For the delayed flights our staff can wait up to a maximum of 2 hours. For further delays, our guests are expected to take a taxi to their hotel without any refund from our side. However, if the delays are advised to us in advance then there is no problem at all as our transfer service will be amended accordingly.
If the guests miss the connected domestic flights due to the late arrival of the international ones no responsibility is taken and all the extra costs are charged from the guests. Therefore short connection intervals between the international and domestic flights are at the risk of our guests.
Some hotels may claim to have been providing free transfer services on arrival. However, most of these transfer services are valid with the much higher Rack/Internet rates of the hotels and are not applicable to the reservations required from us as our contract prices are generally lower than those released by the hotels.
Since tour rates are based on group participation NO REFUNDS can be made for any services or any part of the program not used, after the start of the tour.
All the participants must have a valid passport for at least three (3) months with the appropriate tourist visa for the destination and/or transit country. It is the responsibility of the passenger to have the necessary documentation in their possession before traveling. Consult the appropriate consulate(s) for information on passport requirements. If the participant is unable to be on the trip or its part due to the absence of the documents required, he/she is obliged to cover any costs involved at his own expense.
APONO TRAVEL assumes no responsibility for the lost and left items at the time of the tours. However, if anything is returned to us by the hotels and the other related parties we can ship these items on to the required addresses. Then, the full shipment fee is charged by us prior to the shipment of the item. For the credit card payments, a convenience fee of 2.5% of the shipment fee is added on to the total charges. We regretfully do not accept payments on the destination.
APONO TRAVEL regrets, but cannot be responsible for any damage or injury to participants while touring – unless the shortcoming is caused by our company.
The notice of cancellations by participants should be given in writing, and all such cancellations will be effective on the date the written notification is received.
In the event of cancellation by a participant sharing the same accommodation, the rate charged to the remaining participant will have to be increased to the “Single Occupancy” rate, unless we can arrange for a Shared Accommodation.
Cancellation fees/charges are agreed to be “Liquidated Damages”, and not a penalty. Deposit towards a tour constitutes full acceptance of these “General Terms & Conditions” and to the Cancellation Policy.
The Cancellation Fees, in addition to any applicable Airline Penalties, are as follows:
- If a booking is canceled more than 30 days prior to the scheduled departure, full payment (less €25 per person cancellation processing fee) shall be refunded upon receipt of the cancellation notice.
- If canceled 21 to 30 days prior to departure, the cancellation fee shall be 10% of the total cost
- If canceled 11 to 20 days prior to departure, the cancellation fee shall be 25% of the total cost
- If canceled 2 to 10 days prior to departure, or thereafter, the cancellation fee shall be 50% of the total cost
- Since tour rates are based on group participation / or minimum person requirements, NO REFUNDS can be made for any services or any part of the program not used, for the cancellations made within the last 48 hours prior to the service commencement date.
- Some hotels may also charge a cancellation fee for the bookings canceled within the last 30-45 days prior to the check-in date. If such a remark is noted on our confirmation sheet this hotel fee will also be charged in full regardless of what is standing above.
- If the cancellations are made due to obligatory reasons like force-majeure situations beyond the control of the participants our company can be flexible on this issue as to charge only the expenses imposed on to us by the third parties or may waive any of the cancellation charges depending on the situation.
APONO TRAVEL is a handicapped friendly travel company and carries out specific private services for the handicapped people. However, we do not offer regular/seat-in-coach services as such tours are carried out in a speedy tempo and with limited space available due to the participation of many other guests.
Traveling with a baby is great fun for the families and therefore we, as APONO TRAVEL, are available to supply you with a baby seat on our services commencing in Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, and Cappadocia with a daily rate of €10. However, there may be extra charges at the other locations. Baby seat requests should be made 7 days prior to the service commencement date as otherwise such an extra service cannot be guaranteed.
The museums and historical sites that are under the control of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism are closed during the first morning of the public holidays while shopping malls and other stores can be closed during the entire official holiday. The museums like Green Mausoleum in Bursa that is governed by the other institutions rather than the Ministry of Culture and some historical shopping malls like Covered Bazaar and Egyptian Bazaar are closed during the whole public holiday period. Hereafter are the official holiday dates that are current for the year 2019 and 2020. Please note that we take no responsibility for any kind of inconvenience that may emerge due to the closures.
01 January New Year’s Day
23 April National Independence & Children’s Day
19 May Youth Sports Day
30 August Victory Day
01-09 June 2019 / 24-26 May 2020 Ramadan Feast
29 October Republic Day (Anniversary of the Declaration of the Turkish Republic)
11-14 August 2019 / 31 July-03 August 2020 Feast of Sacrifice (Feast of Adha)
Beyond these specific closures, the routine closure days have been designated at the related itinerary to avoid any potential problem in this respect.
For your information, some of the museums/sites and roads may temporarily be closed for restoration purposes or due to the visit of a dignitary, ceremonies with regard to the National Days, etc. beyond our knowledge and control. APONO TRAVEL does not assume any responsibility on such a case and accordingly, no refunds are made for any missing visits.
Should the tour participants have any complaints about any of the tour arrangements, these should be immediately brought to the attention of us, in order to remedy the problem momentarily. Furthermore, any such complaints about our tours must be submitted to us in writing, within 30 days after the completion of the services.
As APONO TRAVEL we do not handle any visa issues. Visa handling companies should directly be contacted for such cases.
Neither does APONO TRAVEL accept any liability for lost, stolen or damaged personal property (including money), losses or expenses due to delay or changes in schedules, hotel overbooking or defaults, sickness, epidemics, weather conditions, strikes, war, quarantine, force major, acts of God, or any other causes beyond the direct control of APONO TRAVEL, nor carriers´ or hotel owners´ liability is governed by applicable laws or international conventions. In such cases, all additional expenses have to be covered by the participant. If a participant arrives too late at the port of embarkation and the ship has sailed then all consequences and costs that may occur will be borne by the participant.
All rights of this confidential tariff are reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this confidential tariff may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of APONO TRAVEL which may cause a penalty and subject to a criminal prosecution regarding domestic and international applicable laws.
